2 years ago today :-)

Two years ago today was an amazing and wonderful day. I married the man of my dreams at the Pepperdine Chapel surrounded by our family and friends. I am so thankful that God brought my wonderful husband Chad and I together and I am amazed to see what He has done in our lives since then.

We have been living in a one-bedroom apartment together for this entire time and I am pleased to say we have enjoyed it. You really get to know one another when you live in tight quarters. ;-) We are so excited because we are about to (Lord willing) purchase our first condo/house together and I'm sure that will provide a lot of new adventures for us.

I am such a lucky girl to have a husband who is strong, sensitive, funny, thoughtful, loving, and kind. He supports my quilting hobby and all the random projects I am working on, and is proud of what I do for a living. I am equally proud of him for all he has accomplished and how hard he works every day. I know he does it all for us and for our future and that means SO much to me.

I love you honey! :-) Happy Anniversary!

Our Trip To Mammoth and Yosemite

Alaska Cruise Trip - Day 4

Today we arrived in Ketchikan, Alaska. We didn't even hear the boat get to the dock so we were surprised when we woke up to see land outside our window. Ketchikan is a neat place. It is located on an island and is known as Alaska's "First City" because it is the first major town that travelers reach as they go north. We got up and had breakfast and got off the ship at 9am so we could get to our tour bus to take us to the Rainforest Wildlife Sanctuary. While going through downtown we noticed a lot of Salmon shops like the one in the photo below.

Some homes in the town of Ketchikan

We reached the Rainforest Wildlife Sanctuary and it was raining. It was actually raining the whole way there too. The Tongass Rainforest is a temperate rainforest and they get over 200 inches of rain per year. The Tongass is the largest National Forest in the United States and is comprised of 17 million acres. We explored a tiny portion of this forest and I found it to be one of the prettiest places I'd ever seen. It was so green and lush and quiet, we felt like we were in a movie.
Our guides warned us that we were entering black bear habitat and made sure none of us were carrying any salmon jerky in our pockets. That seems like a funny thing to have in your pocket but I guess it's common in Ketchikan. :-) We learned a lot about the black bears and saw some of their markings on the trees. The adult bears mark the trees to show the other bears how big and strong they are.
We also saw gigantic King Salmon jumping out of the water in the hatchery. They had come back to the hatchery to spawn. They return to within 6 inches of where they were born to complete that process. Pretty impressive internal GPS!


The moss you see on this tree is a type of Lichen that only grows if the air is very clean. We took lots of deep breaths so we could absorb as much of the clean air as possible ;-)


After hiking through the rainforest and hatchery area we walked through an old saw mill and into an area full of reindeer. We got to feed the reindeer and they were pretty funny... and hungry. :-)
After the reindeer's tummies were all full of leaves, we walked over to visit a bald eagle and an owl that are kept up there because they are injured and couldn't live in the wild on their own. The amount of bald eagles we saw in Alaska was astonishing. They were pretty much everywhere and it wasn't uncommon to see groupings of 10 of them sitting in a tree. What a treat!
We really enjoyed this tour and would highly recommend it to anyone who visits Ketchikan. At the end of the tour they also provided smoked salmon and hot chocolate for a snack.
We rode the bus back into town and went on a hunt for a quilt shop that I had seen online. It took a while but we managed to find it and a bunch of other fun stores too. We even bought a winter coat for me because we were starting to realize that 52 degrees was going to be as warm as it was going to get on this trip. And on the ocean, it felt more like the 30s. Thankfully the winter coats were only $19.99! I am wearing that coat in many of the photos from our trip. :-)
The boat left port at 4:30pm and we enjoyed some scenic cruising before dinner. And of course I will mention the dinner since cruising is a lot about food too. hehe It was Italian night. I had an eggplant parmesan appetizer, minestrone soup, salad, spaghetti, and a stuffed peach for dessert. That sounds like a lot of food!
After dinner it was still light out until about 11pm so we went looking for whales. We didn't find any but it was a beautiful night. Tomorrow we wake up early to cruise the Tracy Arm Fjords and then we're off to Juneau!

Alaska Cruise Trip - Day 3

       Today was our first "At Sea" day on the Star Princess.  We were looking forward to relaxing and doing whatever we wanted, whenever we wanted. :-)   We slept in late and went up to the buffet for breakfast which was very good. There was lots of variety and it wasn't too hard to find a table.  After breakfast we went for a walk around the promenade deck of the ship which is the only deck you can walk around the entire ship continuously without running into a wall or a kitchen, etc.   It was pretty cold outside so we walked quickly.  

This is the pool at the aft of the ship that I pictured myself hanging out in but it was a little cold for that. It's still pretty cool to have a pool there. 

After our walk around the ship we decided to check out the gym and spa areas.  In the picture below you can see the lap pool and the paddle tennis courts and running track in the background.   It felt really odd to work out as the ship was moving. I did the elliptical and Chad did the treadmill. I kept feeling like my body was getting heavier as the ship went over the swells.  The gym is in a really nice location because you look right over the bow of the boat from the windows.

Us after our gym experience... 

    After the workout we went on a search for the miniature golf course or "Princess Links".  We found it but realized there was a tournament going on at the time and decided to try back another day. 

      We had signed up for a wine tasting in the Amalfi dining room the night before, so we went to that at 3pm.  It was a pretty good deal ($9.50) and we got to taste 6 wines and snack on cheese and fruit.  The wines were all very good and there were a couple we considered getting for our dinners.  If you order a bottle of wine for dinner and don't finish it, they save it for you for the next night. 

      After the wine tasting we went back to the room and relaxed for a while, napped, and read.   That evening was the first formal night so we got all dressed up and went to dinner at 8pm.  That night I had the grapefruit and kiwi appetizer (yum), a salad, beef tenderloin medallion, and the Princess Loveboat Dream Dessert.  A very very nice meal.

       After dinner we headed over to the Princess Theater and watched their presentation of "Cinematastic". It was a celebration of songs performed in  movies over the years.  It was pretty good. Some of the songs I wasn't familiar with but I enjoyed the ones I knew a lot. 

      After a relaxing a busy day at sea we slept really well.  I think I slept better on the ship than I do at home!  While we were sleeping the ship left British Columbia and entered Alaskan waters.  Tomorrow is Ketchikan!
     

Alaska Cruise Trip - Day 1

      My husband and I recently returned from a wonderful trip. We took a cruise to Alaska on Princess Cruises' "Star Princess" ship.   We left out of Seattle on July 6th and returned on the 13th.   It was a great trip and I'm going to be blogging about each day of the trip.  I will include pics and stories about the trip as well tips for people who might be thinking about taking a cruise to Alaska in the future. 

      We left home on the 5th of July and flew to Seattle on Virgin America. This was our first time on this airline and it was pretty interesting.  It has all kinds of mood lighting and purple plastic on the interior and each seat gets their own entertainment system that includes movies, television, video games and a food ordering system.  The movies and premium television require payment to use them but most everything else is free. 

       The plane wasn't very full and we had a great opportunity to upgrade to first class for a very low cost so we took advantage of that.  We were served a nice meal and got to use all the entertainment services without paying extra.  I watched "Horton Hears a Who" and thoroughly enjoyed it.  Chad watched "Sweeney Todd" but was sad that the movie didn't end by the time the plane landed.  Most of movies available were too long for our flight to Seattle.  But we had a nice time being pampered and it was a great start to our trip. 

       Once we arrived in Seattle we caught a cab to the Red Lion on 5th Avenue.   It cost 30 dollars for the cab ride from the airport.  The hotel is located in the center of downtown Seattle and surrounded by restaurants and shopping. It's a great location for anyone who wants to see downtown on foot.  It's very nice and updated and I would definitely stay there again. We settled in and then decided to take a monorail to the space needle. The monorail was only 2 blocks from the hotel so that was very convenient. We got to the space needle very quickly and bought tickets to go up to the top.   It was very fun and we enjoyed the beautiful view. The sunlight at that time was great for picture taking too. 

        After leaving the Space Needle we were starving and tired so we took the monorail back to the hotel area and ate dinner at P.F. Changs.   After that we went back to the hotel and went to bed early so we would be ready for our big day ahead of us.  It was nice to arrive in Seattle the day before the cruise. It took a lot of the stress out of getting to the ship on time and we had extra time in case our luggage got lost or the flight was delayed. 

The Space Needle

Chad enjoying the space needle

The view to the south from the Space Needle

A very interesting building that we could see from our hotel room

Grocery Game Update

After a few weeks of using "The Grocery Game" I wanted to provide a little update on the progress. I am still extremely happy with it and here are some quick facts and things I have learned so far.

• In the last three weeks we have saved more than enough money to pay for a pantry to keep our stock pile in.
• Out of 340 dollars in groceries, I have paid 155 dollars!
• A vast majority of the products I have purchased are name brand items.
• The 4 week trial period only costs a dollar, and after that it's 10 dollars every 8 weeks.
• There are many sales on the list that aren't advertised.
• Home Depot is a great place to get an affordable stand alone pantry. I think if/ when we get a house with a garage, we will get a couple more and line them up in the garage.
• For Ralphs, it's important to shop on Sundays because some of the sale items are gone by Monday evening. The sale period may differ for each store but for Ralphs it's Sunday, Monday, Tuesday.
• The Grocery Game has changed the way I shop for food and it's given us the gift of extra cash in our bank account.

My first try at "The Grocery Game"

Tonight was my first try at "The Grocery Game" and I'm thrilled with the results! (and so is my wallet)  For those of you who haven't heard of it, "The Grocery Game" is a website that a woman created to help other people save money on groceries.  She created this huge database that keeps track of all the coupons and sales the happen at the major grocery stores.  Each week all you have to do is clip the coupons out of the L.A. Times or other major paper, and hold on to your coupon mailings.  On the weekends, "the list" is published which tells you what is on sale for that week. At Ralphs where I shop, the sales happen on Sunday,  Monday and Tuesday.  The list is color coded. Blue means it's time to stock up on an item because it's at the lowest price. Green means that you can get the item for free. And Black means that the item is on sale, but you should only buy it if you need it or want a treat.  That information, combined with the coupons that she tells you to use, add up to huge savings. And the philosophy is that you would only buy items when they are on sale, stock pile those items, and then go to your own pantry to go shopping once you need the item.  Tonight was my first time trying out this system and I was so happy to see how much I saved!  The bill would have been 106 dollars, and I paid 53!!!!!!  I'm a grocery game convert now and will definitely be using it to save money from now on. :-)

Trip to Paso Robles

Chad and I took a trip to Paso Robles this weekend to visit his parents and we had a very nice time. It had been a while since we had been up there and it was great to see them and catch up on everything that's been going on. As a little sidenote- my camera has been "on the fritz" lately and we were able to pick up a new one on our way up there at Best Buy. I got the Canon Powershot SD1100 IS - Digital Elph and these pics are some of the first I took with the camera. I've been very happy with the results so far.

This is their dog Skipper and he is such a little bundle of energy. He provided much entertainment during the weekend. :-)

This is Skipper posing for me with his favorite toy ball.

We went out to dinner here the first night we were there and it was very tasty!

The pretty foliage around their house.

We went over to the stables near the house and made some horse friends while we were there. This one liked Chad a lot and was licking his hand. :-)

Another horse friend posing for the camera.

My camera was on "kids and pets" mode when it caught this horse's tongue mid-lick. :-)

This horse also liked Chad a lot. :-)

And he liked Chad's shirt even better... we think he thought it was food.

A sneaky hiding horse. :-)

Lake Nacimiento- near the house.

All in all we had a wonderful time and look forward to our next trip.

Santa Anita Derby Day

Today was Derby day at Santa Anita Park and my mom and I went to cheer on our favorite Kentucky Derby Contenders. The Santa Anita Derby is one of the most important races to determine which horses get to race in the Kentucky Derby.  It was a slightly overcast day which made it pretty comfortable with the huge crowds.  We got seats in the Club House Loge area which is now my favorite area at Santa Anita.  We really enjoyed  it and had a great day.  The favorites to win were Colonel John and El Gato Malo.  Colonel John, ridden by Corey Nakatani, ended up winning followed by Bob Black Jack and Coast Guard.  We got a wonderful spot at the walking ring before the race started and as you can see, I had some fun taking pictures. :-)

Fans waiting at the walking ring

NBC Commentator

A very young owner standing on her horse's number

Corey Nakatani on Colonel John

Richard Migloire on Bob Black Jack

Yankee Bravo 

A Jumpy El Gato Malo with rider David Flores and Trainer Craig Dollase

The Sea of Humanity ready to watch the Derby

The Start of the Derby

My First Quilt that isn't a wall hanging :-)

I have been keeping this quilt a secret because I was making it for my brother, Steve (for his birthday), and I didn't want him to know. It was so hard to not blog about the progress but well worth it for the surprise factor. :-) This is my first quilt that is larger than a wall hanging and I'm so excited that it turned out looking like a quilt! My mom helped me a great deal (and Dad too- thanks for the help with taping it to the floor) and my parents were so nice to let me take over their living room with all the quilting debris and accouterments. I learned a lot while making this one and now I'm itching to start another. This one might have to be secret too though... hmm. :-) Also, thanks to my wonderful husband Chad for helping me pick "manly" colors for the quilt, and for putting up with my late night sewing and all the threads scattered throughout the apartment. He supports me so much in my new quilting hobby. :-) (And everything I do for that matter.)

Happy Retirement!

Last week we took a whirlwind trip to Hawaii for my dad's last flight with American Airlines. It worked out wonderfully because my brother and his wife were able to come and so we had the whole family together! We flew to Hawaii early in the morning on Tuesday and were able to enjoy the day there to the fullest. We had a great lunch, played on the beach and partied the night away in Waikiki. :-) The trip home was great too. The weather was fabulous and clear and we even had two rainbows greeting us before takeoff. Once we got home it felt funny that we had just gone to Hawaii for a day, but it was one of the best trips ever because we were all together celebrating my dad's great career. Here are some pics from the fun.

The retirement party that evening

Mom and Dad on the balcony

Steve and Liesl on the balcony

Chad and I on the balcony